Corrosive fluids such as organic and mineral acids are used for a wide variety of industrial applications for which the corrosion of metals is a significant problem. A solution to the problem is the addition of corrosion inhibitors to the corrosive fluid in concentrations effective to inhibit corrosion of the metals without significantly reducing the effectiveness of the corrosive fluid. However, corrosion mechanisms are not well understood and a selection of inhibitors is generally done by trial and error.
At the present time, most commercially available corrosion inhibitors useful for addition to corrosive fluids consist of complex mixtures of chemicals. An exception is U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,838 which describes the use of benzazoles, e.g. 2-(3-aminopropyl)benzoxazole, as sole corrosion inhibitors.